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Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Koji Uehara, left, reacts after giving up an RBI sacrifice fly to Chicago Cubs' Luis Valbuena (24) who kneels to watch teammate Anthony Rizzo score in the ninth inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Tuesday, July 1, 2014. It proved to be the winning run as the Cubs won, 2-1. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
(Elise Amendola)

BOSTON – It must be tough stretch when even Koji Uehara is struggling - even in relative terms.

Uehara entered a 1-1 game in the ninth against Chicago on Tuesday. He allowed a leadoff single to Anthony Rizzo and a double to Starlin Castro before Luis Valbuena hit a sacrifice fly to right scoring Rizzo with the go-ahead run in the 2-1 loss.

Uehara was tagged with his second loss of the season.

A repeat of his otherworldly 2013 season wasn't expected and would have been nearly impossible. Uehara has been among the best closers in the game this season, but has slipped a few more times than last season.

In 2013, the Red Sox closer entered 15 games with the score tied in the regular season. He allowed the opposing team to gain the lead just three times.

This season, Uehara has pitched in nine tie games, but has already allowed opponents to take the lead in four games. Three of those appearances have come in the past two weeks -- June 18 vs. Minnesota, June 21 at Oakland and Tuesday night.

"I think the command of my split is not quite where I want it to be," he added.

Manager John Farrell noted teams have made adjustments to Uehara's devastating splitter.

“A number of early swings," said Farrell. "When he’s given up some base hits, it’s been on first or second pitch where he’s trying to get a strike and it’s not the true put-away split. That was the case with Rizzo tonight and I thought Castro laid off some pretty good pitches to get deep into that count and then gets one up in the strike zone for the double. It’s been more in the early counts where we’ve seen some of the damage take place.”

"I mean, you can't go out and not give up a run every time out," said starter Clay Buchholz. "It's impossible. As far as I'm concerned, he's the best closer slash reliever in the game. It's easy to say that getting to sit there and watch him go out. It's almost like everybody takes a deep breath every time he runs out there on the mound or in the clubhouse. Things happen. This game is really hard. If you throw 120 miles an hour, somebody is going to get a hit off you and score a run."